Niko Pirosmani Museum

Niko Pirosmanashvili House-Museum was founded in 1960, village Mirzaani (grand opening took place later, on May 5, 1963). It is quite symbolic, that the first exhibit of the memorial museum was the painting “Threshing Floor at Dusk” (Cat. #1). The painting was presented to the newly founded museum by Association of Writers of Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia. In the same period Signagi local history museum contributed paintings – “Fruit Stall”, “She-bear with Cubs” and “Sona playing a Concertina” to the collection; in 1967 it received a signboard “Tsarapi” from Gurjaani local history museum. That was the beginning of creation of Niko Pirosmanashvili state museum collection and its further development on a whole.

Presently, after some 50 years since foundation of the museum, Niko Pirosmanashvili state museum is a museum complex; it comprises a group of museums, located in Tbilisi and Dedoplistskaro municipality: in village Mirzaani – a memorial house, which was built in 1898 by Niko Pirosmanashvili for his sister – Pepe. At that time this house, constructed with stone and lime solution, was the only building in the village, roofed with tin. This is the very building where Niko Pirosmanashvili house-museum was opened (it was renovated in 2012) and where the first pieces of the collection were exhibited. The complex also comprises exhibition hall (architect G. Bakradze, 1979), with simple, massive shapes and dominating monumental rigor characteristic for Soviet architecture. Memorial house and other constructions — components of the complex — a residential house of relatives (cousins) of the painter (XIX century), with low key, elegant interior; wine cellar, buildings of museum administration (tens of families of Pirosmanashvili clan resided here about a century ago); museum complex in Mirzaani covers several hectares and is part of breathtaking landscape, with wonderful view on Alazani valley.

The Niko Pirosmanashvili Museum in Mirzaani also encompasses part of building #29 on Pirosmani (formerly Molokani) Street in Tbilisi, where the artist spent the last days of his life and created many of his masterpieces. The Tbilisi house-museum was founded in 1982 and originally occupied only the space under the staircase; it has been functioning in its current state since 1988. Additionally, the museum complex includes a memorial to those who fell in World War II in the village of Zemo Machkhaani.

Collections of Niko Pirosmanashvili state museum are concentrated in Mirzaani complex. Presently it counts more than 11 200 exhibits, majority of which are important specimens of Georgian fine arts and demonstrate characteristic features and nature of art of that period. Here are some of them — paintings and graphic works of L. Gudiashvili, Q. Magalashvili, V. Sidamon-Eristavi, U. Japharidze, S. Gershov, T. Mirzashvili, Al. Bajbeuk-Melikov, N. Iankoshvili, D. Eristavi, Z. Tsereteli, G. Kandareli, Gr. Chirinashvili, V. Meliashvili; glyptic portraits and small plastic specimens of sculptors — B. Avalishvili, B. Tsibadze, N. Popkhadze and others. We need to specially mention Niko Pirosmanashvili’s graphic portrait, drawn by P. Picasso, stored at the museum. This portrait was drawn at the request of Ilia Zdanevich, for his book — “Niko Pirosmanashvili, 1914”, published in Paris. The publication only counts 70 copies. This portrait, drawn by P. Picasso in 1972, was granted to Pirosmanashvili museum by the wife of Ilia Zdanevich in 1985.

In addition to the collection of fine arts, Pirosmani museum in Mirzaani owns rich ethnographic materials — numerous prominent specimens of carpets, applied arts and photo collections. Mr. Anzor Mazgarashvili, who headed the museum for almost 50 years, has contributed a lot to gathering the collection and, generally, to establishing the museum in its present state.

And still the biggest treasure of Niko Pirosmanashvili museum is a collection comprising 14 paintings of Pirosmani. The master copies are preserved at the National Museum of Georgia (at Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts, at Dimitry Shevardnadze National Gallery and Sighnaghi museum), Kutaisi Gallery of Fine Arts and Batumi, Adjara Museum of Arts. Part of Pirosmani’s paintings are stored at Russian (Moscow and Saint Petersburg) museums, and Georgian and foreign private collections. Since the 1970s, the collection of Pirosmani’s paintings was significantly expanded with works purchased from private collections, which are exhibited in permanent expositions of the museum: “Molokani Carousing” (1972, from the collection of K. Zdanevich), “Woman with Easter Eggs” (1975, from Akhvlediani collection); “Shota Rustaveli at the Table” and “Queen Tamar” (in 1986 the Ministry of Culture of Georgia procured them from A. Beliashvili collection and presented them to the museum); “Still Life with a Loaf of Sugar” and “Reclining Woman” (1988, from private collections of T. Alexandrova and I. Popov, Moscow). “Queen Tamar” and “Shota Rustaveli” (they were kept in the private collections of I. Megrelidze and N. Shvangiradze, later — at the Museum of Friendship [Academy of Sciences of Georgia], which presented them to Niko Pirosmanashvili state museum in Mirzaani in 1989), “Musha [porter] Soso” (Edward Shevardnadze’s Foundation purchased it in 1996 for Niko Pirosmanashvili state museum in Mirzaani. Importantly, the catalogue reflects the present state of the collection. In 2012–2015, paintings of N. Pirosmani — “Queen Tamar”, “Reclining Woman”, “Threshing Floor at Dusk”, “Shota Rustaveli” and “Woman with Easter Eggs” — underwent restoration.

In 2015, Niko Pirosmanashvili state museum collection travelled around Georgia for the first time and was exhibited in Tbilisi, at the Georgian State Museum of Theatre, Music, Cinema and Choreography — Art Palace; in Kutaisi, at Kutaisi Historical Museum; in Tsinandali, at Aleksandre Chavchavadze House-Museum; and in Batumi, at the Adjara Museum of Arts. Along with master copies of N. Pirosmani, the exhibition “Pirosmani from Mirzaani museum collection” presented posters reflecting exhibitions of the artist and the portrait of Niko Pirosmanashvili drawn by P. Picasso.

Exhibitions were visited by thousands of people and enjoyed great interest from the public.

Along with memorial objects, the Mirzaani museum keeps the personal dossier of Niko Pirosmanashvili covering the 1890–1894 period, when the painter worked on the “Transcaucasia” (South Caucasus) railway, presenting extremely important archive-documentary materials.